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Straidhavern Primary School, Crumlin

School Counselling Service

29th Aug 2019

We are delighted to have secured funding to continue our school counselling service this year. This will be the third year that counselling has been on offer at Straidhavern and we greatly value the importance of having this option available to our children in support of their mental health.

Unfortunately we can only run the service for 15 weeks rather than the whole year but we hope to apply for additional funding as the year progresses.

Our school counsellor, Seaneen, will be returning to school in the week commencing 16th September 2019 for the first sessions of the year.

What is counselling?

Counselling is a private chat with a qualified counsellor about things that concern us. What is discussed depends on the person being counselled, but it is often about issues like loneliness, bullying, bereavement, relationship issues or other distressing events.

What does a counsellor do?

Counsellors are trained to listen to people, without judging them in any way, and help them sort out their thoughts and feelings about whatever is concerning them.

Who are the school counsellors?

They are fully qualified and experienced children's counsellors with a wide experience of working with children. The school counsellor at Straidhavern PS is called Seaneen and 2019/20 will be her second school year with us.

Why have a counsellor in school?

Often, when we are stressed, worried, or just plain unhappy, we cannot work out why we feel so low. This is especially so for children. Our experience is that counselling helps children as well as adults, and a little counselling help for an unhappy child early in his/her school career can have an immensely beneficial impact on his/her life chances.

 

The amount of children who can see the counsellor is limited and over the past two years the service has been oversubscribed.

If you think that you would like your child to use this service or if you have any further questions, please contact Mr Young or Miss McKenzie. Remember that the counsellor does not deal solely with issues affecting school but they can also help with issues at home that may affect our pupils long term mental health.